In most computer systems, software and data required to execute applications and to maintain system and user configurations are stored in one or more storage devices, such as a RAM, ROM, or hard disk. Storage devices such as those listed are usually located locally within a housing of a computer. Hard disk drives in modern computers are capable of storing large amounts of data and software. In order to manage and organize the information stored in such drives, it is often desired to separate the storage device into one or more partitions so that data and programs may be stored in individually identifiable locations. For example, in many instances partitions provide logical divisions or allocations of addressable memory for locating and organizing data and operating systems. The partitions may be formatted according to a file structure, such as a new technology file system (“NTFS”) structure or a file allocation table (“FAT”) structure including, for example, FAT12, FAT16, or FAT32. In addition, multiple operating systems may be stored on a single hard drive by configuring the drive to include a separate partition for each operating system, for which a different file structure may also be implemented. When a computer is turned on a booting process begins execution of code in a master boot record (“MBR”) that determines which partition should be selected to boot from, thus designating the configuration (i.e., which operating system and file structure) for the computer.
In many systems, and independent of a particular hard drive configuration, it is often desired to create a back-up or image of the hard disk configuration. The image may be a file that represents the current configuration of the computer hard drive including, for example, the operating system, applications, desktop customizations, and hardware drivers. The image file is usually compressed so it does not require the same amount of memory as the disk itself. It may be desired to reconfigure or re-image the hard drive for a variety of reasons including introducing new or revised applications and operating systems, installing drivers and utilities required for new hardware, and restoring a corrupted system with a previous configuration.
In some multi-terminal computer systems, a user or an administrator may be responsible to oversee the reconfiguration of multiple computer hard disks on multiple computers. Hard disk reconfigurations often require that the administrator physically go to each computer to execute the changes. In organizations having numerous computers, physically going to each computer to reconfigure it is time consuming. In some networked systems, an administrator may reconfigure a host terminal or server and then each networked computer terminal or client that connects to and utilizes the server memory will operate according to the reconfiguration. However, if it is desired that the terminals operate independent of a common server (e.g., as workstations) or have configurations that are different from other terminals on the network, the desired terminals are generally individually and physically visited.